Walking Ten Birds

For the past few Sundays, I have been attending a trap meet at a rod and gun club here in Kentucky. They are having their first winter session and it seems like everyone enjoys getting out of the house to smash some clays.

Personally, this is the most I’ve shot trap in my life. In fact, this might be the most I’ve shot regularly ever. Typically back in the day, shooting sessions were more hedonistic than sportsmanlike and consisted of unloading bullets at cans, bottles, street signs, watermelons, or whatever else we could scrap up. With the subsequent sale of the property I used to shoot at, I’ve spent the last few years honestly just shooting to tune up my rifle for deer hunting season and that’s it. I think when it came down to it, I only shot a half dozen rounds a year.

Now that I’m shooting regularly, I’ve had to learn how to shoot with purpose and consistency. Trap is counted in broken clays, and the more the better. Approaching your shot is almost the same as approaching your golf shot. In golf, you typically do a 4 step cadence. You place your feet, address the ball, back swing, and then forward swing. Trap shooting is kind of the same. You position your feet, shoulder the shotgun, swing to meet the target, and then pull the trigger.

To be honest, I’ve learned more about shooting shotguns these past few weeks than I ever have before. I’ve been waiting to commit to the sport until I was sure I enjoyed it. I have a tendency to take on too many different things, and have learned that saying yes to something means saying no to another.

At this point I’m committed myself to getting better at it. I’m not too sure what will fall out of my free time assortment. My guess is golf. But I was never really that good at chasing a white ball around anyway.